Java 7 for Fedora 16

[Conan Kudo (ニール・ゴンパ)]

On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 9:18 AM, Andy Grimm <agrimm at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 6:00 PM, Deepak Bhole <dbhole at redhat.com> wrote:
> > * Douglas Myers–Turnbull <dmyersturnbull at gmail.com> [2011-07-25 20:53]:
> >> > I was planning to do this myself .. glad you started it :) I can take
> >> > over the Feature and doing all the work if you're fine with it...
> >>
> >> Please do!
> >>
> >> The only work I've done (literally) is on the feature page, but feel
> >> free let me know if you need anything from me.
> >>
> >
> > Hi Douglas,
> >
> > Thank you once again for creating the page. I have started updating it
> > and will add docs and other links tomorrow:
> > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Java7
> >
> > For anyone and everyone interested, a Java 7 build is now available in
> > the Fedora 16. I will build for rawhide in the coming days as well:
> > http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=257034
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Deepak
>
> After some discussion on #fedora-java over the past 24 hours, I was
> asked to continue the discussion here regarding the implications of
> openjdk 6 and 7 coexisting in F16.  Right now, java packages are being
> built for F16 using openjdk 7, and if they are built without
> "target=1.6", they will fail to load under openjdk 6.  (One simple
> example of this is xalan, see
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=733686 ).  Some possible
> solutions proposed over IRC:
>
> 1) Blacklist openjdk 7 from build roots for f16 -- this means that it
> doesn't get tested very well, though.
>
> 2) Ensure all java packages use target=1.6 -- there's no standard way
> to do this across ant, mvn, javac, etc. though.  You could check for
> 1.7 bytecode at the end of a build, but packages would still need to
> be individually fixed.
>
> 3) Drop openjdk 6 from F16 entirely
>
> It was also mentioned that Fedora is beginning to include some
> packages which build much more cleanly on openjdk 7 than they do on 6,
> so enforcing openjdk 6-only build roots might break some things.
>
> Other suggestions are welcome.  I don't have a strong opinion about
> this, just a strong interest in having a sane Java environment in F16.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --Andy
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>

I personally think OpenJDK 7 should become the default. I would like to have
OpenJDK 6 remain in the repository, but it shouldn't be included on the DVD
for installation. There are some older packages that simply won't work yet
with OpenJDK 7. However, as far as I know, those packages are not included
in Fedora. I don't see a good reason to enforce an OpenJDK 6 environment
when OpenJDK 7 is working well with most modern Java packages. The troubles
involved in having both OpenJDK 6 and OpenJDK 7 in the default Java
environment is simply not worth it either.

I say that for Fedora 16, OpenJDK 7 should be on the DVD and the preferred
Java environment. However, I think that OpenJDK 6 shouldn't be removed from
the repositories until Fedora 17. If this isn't feasible, I'd say that
Fedora should completely drop OpenJDK 6 in favor of OpenJDK 7.

Unlike some of the earlier major Java revisions, Java 7 doesn't break most
modern Java applications. However, the API cleanup between Java 6 and Java 7
may contribute to some older applications no longer working as expected. As
far as I know, most Java applications in Fedora don't seem to have this
problem. Java 7 will also begin offering a more consistent experience on
Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows because they will be using the same codebase
now, since Apple is no longer maintaining their own JRE and JDK. This alone
makes Java 7 more appealing to me than continuing to use Java 6.
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